James Clain Posted April 20, 2020 Share Posted April 20, 2020 (edited) So I was out having a quick pre mullet run fish at Devlins road on the Nepean river. The mullet were going off and there were ripples across the entire visible area of river. Suddenly I heard and saw giant splash that sounded like a small shark hitting something. Water was everywhere. I thought someone had jumped into the water but there was nobody, no birds and no flying metery mullet either. Just a huge splash. I was very baffled. I thought It might have been a 50cm bass but the splash was to big. There are also no overhanging trees so no drop bears either. Later on I was talking to a mate who fished around Penrith wier 2 days ago and he said he mentioned he saw the exact same thing happen prior to me telling him about my experience. On one occasion he saw a saw a green shape underneath the big splash and he was convinced it was a bass in the 70cm range. Then I realised that what we were seeing were Murray Cod. I am convinced that the splashes were caused by them because I have seen Cod do the same sort of thing when I have been fishing in their natural habitat. What is interesting is that Cod are a species in the Nepean. They do live there. After a bit of research I have found out that they were washed out of Warragamba dam during floods and that they were also stocked into the Nepean. On the DPI website under Murray Cod distribution it says that there is still a small population living in the Nepean https://www.dpi.nsw.gov.au/fishing/fish-species/species-list/murray-cod . This species list of the Hawkesbury Nepean also lists Murray cod and states that they are present as a result of stocking https://www.dpi.nsw.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0018/634032/Hawkesbury-Nepean_Aquatic-biodiversity.pdf . So one of my new goals is to try and catch a Murray Cod in the system. Has anyone caught any Murray Cod in the system? I am happy for a pm if you have a super secret spot. What lures might work? Edited April 20, 2020 by James Clain 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PaddyT Posted April 20, 2020 Share Posted April 20, 2020 ha, there have long been rumours and probable /possible/fictional sightings-its a bit like the Blue Mountains panther. Personally i am aware of an individual who very illegally snuck into the backwaters of one of the Nepean dams (cant remember which one-this was back in the early 90's) and got caught with some dead cod-so its more than possible that there are some that have come over the dam walls-there may even be some kind of local subspecies similar to the eastern cod but its unproven. I had a long chat with one of the most knowlegable guys on the HAwkes/Nepaean system (the previous owner of Windsor BAit and TAckle) on this very subject and he was unaware of ANY documented captures from the river itself. Certainly trout survive the journey down the spillway so again its probable that a few cod would survive. As for sightings and splashes-some of the eels (which are that nice mottled green ) reach very large sizes in the Nepean and will take ducklings off the surface . If i was to nominate a place to catch one -it would be the Nepean gorge but it gets heaps of bass fishos there year round and if they dont get them then i just cant see it being a worthwhile proposition- and in this day and age of social media bragging i just cant see it remaining a secret. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
James Clain Posted April 20, 2020 Author Share Posted April 20, 2020 1 hour ago, PaddyT said: ha, there have long been rumours and probable /possible/fictional sightings-its a bit like the Blue Mountains panther. Personally i am aware of an individual who very illegally snuck into the backwaters of one of the Nepean dams (cant remember which one-this was back in the early 90's) and got caught with some dead cod-so its more than possible that there are some that have come over the dam walls-there may even be some kind of local subspecies similar to the eastern cod but its unproven. I had a long chat with one of the most knowlegable guys on the HAwkes/Nepaean system (the previous owner of Windsor BAit and TAckle) on this very subject and he was unaware of ANY documented captures from the river itself. Certainly trout survive the journey down the spillway so again its probable that a few cod would survive. As for sightings and splashes-some of the eels (which are that nice mottled green ) reach very large sizes in the Nepean and will take ducklings off the surface . If i was to nominate a place to catch one -it would be the Nepean gorge but it gets heaps of bass fishos there year round and if they dont get them then i just cant see it being a worthwhile proposition- and in this day and age of social media bragging i just cant see it remaining a secret. I heard about that on another forum that someone caught a metery cod in the warragamba dam. Why are they in Warragamba? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PaddyT Posted April 20, 2020 Share Posted April 20, 2020 no idea but the stories go a long way back - possibly stocked well before official stocking programmes , this happened a lot in the past-usually with translocated fish caught in other waterways. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
frankS Posted April 20, 2020 Share Posted April 20, 2020 A bit off topic but back in the late 60's a mate was the night watchman at Prospect Reservoir, well he used to alloy me to visit him from time to time while he was on duty. Just before dawn I would walk around the wall and view metre + cod slowly going about their business just patrolling the wall and swimming along without a care in the world. Frank Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
James Clain Posted April 20, 2020 Author Share Posted April 20, 2020 49 minutes ago, frankS said: A bit off topic but back in the late 60's a mate was the night watchman at Prospect Reservoir, well he used to alloy me to visit him from time to time while he was on duty. Just before dawn I would walk around the wall and view metre + cod slowly going about their business just patrolling the wall and swimming along without a care in the world. Frank And were these murray cod ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
frankS Posted April 20, 2020 Share Posted April 20, 2020 Sure were, large as life and within arms length of the wall. Frank Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wazatherfisherman Posted April 20, 2020 Share Posted April 20, 2020 1 hour ago, frankS said: A bit off topic but back in the late 60's a mate was the night watchman at Prospect Reservoir, well he used to alloy me to visit him from time to time while he was on duty. Just before dawn I would walk around the wall and view metre + cod slowly going about their business just patrolling the wall and swimming along without a care in the world. Frank Also a bit off topic, sorry James, I was foreman for the painting company that painted the new (then) water filtering station at Prospect Reservoir. There is a large uncovered concrete canal that flows from the reservoir to the filtering ponds, which had two screened "paddle-wheel" type devices the water flows through to catch solid matter from the canal water. These of course catch all the fish and eels and drop them in big bins with a bit of water in them. The environmental ranger would go and collect the live contents of the 2 bins and return them to the reservoir about every hour or so and the few times I had a look there were all sorts of different fish in them, plus heaps and heaps of eels. While blasting near the shoreline, the construction boys got a 12 lb trout, didn't see it, but the foreman of construction told me they'd got quite a few really big ones and it was the largest, anything live had to be returned to the water, but the big Trout was supposed to be dead and it was cooked and eaten on site I saw a few in the 2 lb range in the bins along with plenty of small fish The environmental ranger would quite often "sneak up" on us when we were painting anywhere near the water and constantly hassled us about "where's your fishing lines?"- we never threw a line in there though 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
James Clain Posted April 20, 2020 Author Share Posted April 20, 2020 44 minutes ago, wazatherfisherman said: Also a bit off topic, sorry James, I was foreman for the painting company that painted the new (then) water filtering station at Prospect Reservoir. There is a large uncovered concrete canal that flows from the reservoir to the filtering ponds, which had two screened "paddle-wheel" type devices the water flows through to catch solid matter from the canal water. These of course catch all the fish and eels and drop them in big bins with a bit of water in them. The environmental ranger would go and collect the live contents of the 2 bins and return them to the reservoir about every hour or so and the few times I had a look there were all sorts of different fish in them, plus heaps and heaps of eels. While blasting near the shoreline, the construction boys got a 12 lb trout, didn't see it, but the foreman of construction told me they'd got quite a few really big ones and it was the largest, anything live had to be returned to the water, but the big Trout was supposed to be dead and it was cooked and eaten on site I saw a few in the 2 lb range in the bins along with plenty of small fish The environmental ranger would quite often "sneak up" on us when we were painting anywhere near the water and constantly hassled us about "where's your fishing lines?"- we never threw a line in there though The Fishfest comp that runs each year in feb in between Camden and Richmond usually has a few trout caught. I didn't think that there would be one this year but there was. Probably washed out of the streams in the mountains where I have a mate who gets them regularly near Wentworth falls. But with all those lines out every year and plus all the general fishing without any cod being caught. makes me wonder. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PaddyT Posted April 21, 2020 Share Posted April 21, 2020 yep i doubt there is many. as for trout the trick used to be to fish from the weir at Penrith up to the Warragamba River AFTER water releases from the dam. The best time was just as the water level started falling and you could walk the track down to the weir. I had a period in 1990 when i was at Uni at UWS where i caught a trout every afternoon after classes for 8 successive days- and i literally had about 15 minutes of light to fish , there were guys bagging out in the fishing club i belonged to (Western Districts Sportfishing) by trolling lures in the gorge, it can be a really good little fishery. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BushFishnCook Posted May 9 Share Posted May 9 All I can say is they're in the Nepean system 100% as I have caught a few Murray cod. Believe it or not is up to you... Maldon area was the first I caught ( a few years back and never mentioned it), strangely enough and this was recently in 2024, we got 2 in the one night not far from the Nepean lookout, on an overnight trip. we caught 1 each amongst a bunch of bass over 40cm Both of the top and the bigger one was only 66cm suggesting that they are actually slow coming up in numbers, every chance because the smaller one was only in the 40s... With the cod growth rate, I expect any nepean cod to be Giants. So either fresh ones coming in or breeding is happening... Similar location to theses 2 fish I recently had on the end of my line what felt like a mini cooper, there was no stopping it, 40lb straight mono and 10kg of drag this fish was unstoppable. Was going to be a meter plus I know it, unfortunately it snapped me off... 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
James Clain Posted May 11 Author Share Posted May 11 On 5/9/2024 at 10:55 AM, BushFishnCook said: All I can say is they're in the Nepean system 100% as I have caught a few Murray cod. Believe it or not is up to you... Maldon area was the first I caught ( a few years back and never mentioned it), strangely enough and this was recently in 2024, we got 2 in the one night not far from the Nepean lookout, on an overnight trip. we caught 1 each amongst a bunch of bass over 40cm Both of the top and the bigger one was only 66cm suggesting that they are actually slow coming up in numbers, every chance because the smaller one was only in the 40s... With the cod growth rate, I expect any nepean cod to be Giants. So either fresh ones coming in or breeding is happening... Similar location to theses 2 fish I recently had on the end of my line what felt like a mini cooper, there was no stopping it, 40lb straight mono and 10kg of drag this fish was unstoppable. Was going to be a meter plus I know it, unfortunately it snapped me off... From further research it sounds as though there are a lot in Warragamba and over the last few years of dam spills they have been stocked up in the system. I have seen a couple photos over the past 6 months. This explains the smaller ones too. Cheers for the response! Getting 2 in one session is nuts. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BushFishnCook Posted May 17 Share Posted May 17 Yes I believe they are definitely coming from warragamba dam, I have also now seen a few photos of others as well 👍 Believe me for the next week maybe even two weeks, life felt like a haze and I had to keep looking back at the photos, like did that really happen... This is the fish I caught that night, it was 66cm. 8 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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